"For years, museums concentrated on building their collections," says Ed Able Jr., president of the American Association of Museums. "Now they are concentrating on how to use those exhibits in more effective ways to educate people."

Museums are presenting an increasing variety of programs and serving as venues for community meetings and forums. The museum world also is more marketing savvy. The American Museum of Natural History in New York, for example, used the release of Steven Spielberg's dinosaur movie, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," as a hook for its dinosaur paleontology exhibition, "The Lost World: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs." The show features skeleton casts from real fossils alongside models of the film's dinosaurs.

And the Smithsonian's popular National Air and Space Museum is sparking interest in the great beyond by marking the twentieth anniversary of "Star Wars," this fall. It will showcase more than 200 original movie props and costumes.

Science museums have led the way in converting museums into places where, says Griffee, visitors can "explore, experiment, and enjoy. The idea now is to take things from behind the glass and put them in your hands - to have people, in effect, messing around with things. We know that when visitors have that kind of experience, they feel like they own that knowledge."

The museum explosion is not without its perils. A primary one, according to Able, is the possible construction of "more museums than we can support. Museums are in competition not only with other museums but with a plethora of charitable organizations."

Indeed, one thing all museums seem to have in common is the ongoing challenge of getting the funding they need.

"We opened on a hope and prayer," says Don Motley executive director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

According to Motley, the rich history of the Negro Leagues, which produced some 2,600 Blacks who were banned from the Major Leagues yet played some of America's most exciting baseball, may be "the great untold American history." But without solid funding - to purchase more artifacts, maintain the facility, and to attract and keep quality professionals - it will be difficult for the museum to carry on.